What Resistance Looks Like -- Justice Department Resignations

 

Some Justice Department officials are being true to their oaths of office and the Constitution, unlike the thugs now at the top of the Department:

Manhattan’s U.S. attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams.

Then, when Justice Department officials sought to transfer the case to the public integrity section in Washington, which oversees corruption cases, the two men who led that unit also resigned, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.

The resignations represent the most high-profile public resistance so far to President Trump’s tightening control over the Justice Department. They were a stunning repudiation of the administration’s attempt to force the dismissal of the charges against Mr. Adams.

The departures of the U.S. attorney, Danielle R. Sassoon, and the officials who oversaw the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Kevin O. Driscoll and John Keller, came in rapid succession on Thursday. Days earlier, the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Emil Bove III, had ordered Manhattan prosecutors to drop the case against Mr. Adams.

The agency’s justification for dropping the case was explicitly political; Mr. Bove had argued that the investigation would prevent Mr. Adams from fully cooperating with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Mr. Bove made a point of saying that Washington officials had not evaluated the strength of the evidence or the legal theory behind the case.

Ms. Sassoon, in a remarkable letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that Mr. Bove’s order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.”

“I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” she said. “I therefore deem it necessary to the faithful discharge of my duties to raise the concerns expressed in this letter with you and to request an opportunity to meet to discuss them further.”

Ms. Sassoon, 38, made a startling accusation in her letter. She wrote that the mayor’s lawyers had “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”...  (our emphasis)

"Quid pro quo" is not a phrase you expect or want to see applying to a Justice Department action in a criminal case.  But with the Department in the greasy grip of the Malignant Fascist's integrity- challenged leadership, mob- style transactional deals will become more the rule than the exception, we predict with great confidence.  When the convicted felon MF pardoned his fellow J6 felons, that was the starting gun for the reign of lawless retribution, quid pro quo crony deals, and defiance of court orders that we're seeing more and more every day.

However, examples of people putting their careers (and sometimes, lives) on the line to resist the Malignant Fascist's un-American and corrupt takeover are starting to accumulate.  Ms. Sassoon, Mr. Driscoll, and Mr. Keller have acted in the best traditions of the Justice Department and of their profession.  Would that more across government, politics, the media, and elsewhere did the same when presented with the MF's constant, largely unchecked lawlessness. 

BONUS:  Sassoon's letter in full here.

(Photo: Ms. Sassoon / United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York via AP)